Tracy Black, 53, of Evanston Wyo., will serve a year-and-a-half to three years in prison for an attempted bank robbery last summer in Wallace.

Black has been in jail since he was arrested. He has already served 224 days.

Defense Attorney Bob Lindemeier told the court that the whole thing started from drinking, when Black’s co-defendant Drew Steier started saying, “Let’s go rob a bank.”

Lindemeier said Black tried to talk Steier out of it, but after more drinks Black gave in, but he said he would only drive and would not get out of the vehicle.

Steier entered the Farmers State Bank in Wallace Aug. 13 with a gun that later turned out to be a BB gun. Steier waved the gun around in the bank, demanding money, but left empty-handed after tellers told him the money was locked up and they could not get to it.

Lindemeier said that Steier didn’t really scare or threaten the employees at the bank, according to witness depositions.

When employees told Steier they could not access the money, he acted befuddled, as though he didn’t know what he was doing and was in over his head.

He left the bank and got back in the pickup. Black drove out of town on a back road, but the two men were caught about an hour later on Nebraska Highway 61 about 50 miles from Wallace.

Black initially pled not guilty to attempted robbery, but since then he and Lindemeier reached an agreement with the county attorney to plead guilty if prosecutors only asked for the 1˝-3 year sentence.

Without the plea deal, Black could have faced five years for attempted robbery.

Lincoln County District Judge Donald Rowlands agreed to the recommended sentence.

“You have no signs of a significant prior record other than a domestic abuse issue for which you served 30 days,” Rowlands told him, “so I will go along with the sentencing recommendation.”